Who Is the Most Hated Comedian in the World?

Quick: Who is the most offensive comedian in America? Your first thought is probably Howard Stern, or the old Howard Stern when he was king of the shock jocks, interviewing porn stars or having Robin call a Chinese restaurant and place an order in Klingon. If you wanted a more contemporary reference, you might go with South Park's Trey Parker or Matt Stone, who go out of their way to insult whole religions and have collectively produced the funniest smut jokes of all time (Ms. Garrison and Richard Dawkins banging, anybody?). American comedy is full of comedians who boast that they're not just willing but happy to offend anybody, anywhere, any time, that they're willing to "go there," to offer comedy that's over and above the usual bullshit. Thus Daniel Tosh and Amy Schumer and Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle and virtually anyone else worth watching. Despite that richness of options, none of them is even remotely close to the comedian that people hate the most: Seth Rogen.

How many comedians can claim that they have initiated an international event? Rogen reached that elevated status this week with the launch of The Interview, in which he co-stars with James Franco. They play journalists offered an interview with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who then attempt to assassinate Jong-un. The Dear Leader in question is not amused. His spokesperson claimed that the film "shows the desperation of the U.S. government and American society." The remark of course contains an obvious level of irony. When a government is worried about what happens in a Seth Rogen movie, their own desperation is rather remarkably on display. The spokesperson for the regime also noted that Kim Jong-un, despite his reservations, would probably watch the film. Which is doubly, triply, pathetic.

Nonetheless, Kim Jong-un isn't the only person who hates Rogen. There's something about the guy that pisses many people off. The questionable tastefulness of a couple of jokes in this spring's fratboy/new-father comedy Neighbors inspired wildly inappropriate controversy. That movie provoked truly absurd accusations, the craziest coming from Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday. She actually implied that films like Rogen's contributed to the Elliot Rodger killing rampage in California. She actually wrote this:

Rodger's rampage may be a function of his own profound distress, but it also shows how a sexist movie monoculture can be toxic for women and men alike.

How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like "Neighbors" and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of "sex and fun and pleasure"? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, "It's not fair"?

Such a terrible accusation forced Rogen to do the uncoolest thing any comic actor can do: defend himself. He did so on Twitter, but you could see, even in his brief messages, that the outlandish idea that he was responsible genuinely wounded him.

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.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.

His response, I think, shows why Rogen is subject to such ferocious attacks. He doesn't want to offend. All the other comedians trade in their own offensiveness, and therefore they are above being attacked, for the most part. They are pushing the boundaries. But Seth Rogen screams, "I am normal." He's from Canada, for crying out loud — the product of a country whose sole purpose on the planet is not to offend anybody, ever. He identifies himself as a pothead, rather than a drunk or coke fiend — he has chosen to identify with the drug least likely to cause anybody to be an asshole. He makes good-natured, lighthearted comedies, in which he plays self-deprecating characters. He plays himself like any other nice guy.

That is exactly why he can be attacked: his normalcy, his inoffensiveness.

The North Koreans have the same instinct as the Washington Post critic. Notice that they didn't raise the same kind of alarm in 2002 when James Bond was tortured by agents of North Korea in Die Another Day. Jong-un's spokesperson enjoys Bond films. Kim Jong-il did not respond publicly when a puppet version of himself sang "I'm So Ronery" in Parker and Stone's Team America — a performance surely more offensive than The Interview on any number of levels. Rogen creates more fear than people who are willfully shocking. What is upsetting to his critics is the idea that any nice, normal guy would want to assassinate the Dear Leader. Which is true. He is offensive in exact proportion to his normalcy.

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The good news is that Rogen seems to be embracing his own completely unlikely ability to stir up shit. In February, he provided a moving testimony on Capitol Hill about Alzheimer's. And in April he attacked Nancy Grace when she said something typically stupid about marijuana. It's counterintuitive, but it seems to be true: Nothing is more threatening that the seemingly average man. In a recent interview, Rogen claimed, "I'm not hated as much as I feel like I could be. I could be way more hated." The good news is that all he has to do to get there is be himself.

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